Friday, July 17, 2015

Levant Preceptory, Indiana's period costume Knight Templar team, will confer the Order of the Temple at the Dayton Masonic Center, at 525 W. Riverview Avenue in Dayton, Ohio at 12:30 PM on Saturday, July 18, 2015. We operate as a degree team under the charter of Indianapolis' Raper Commandery No. 1, but we draw members from all over Indiana. We travel to Indiana and surrounding states and confer only the Order of the Temple. Knights purchase their own regalia and take pride in excellence of work. If you are in or around Dayton this Saturday, stop in and see us. When we cross swords with real steel broadswords, you'll know it!Unfortunately, I am headed for a convention in New York and won't be able to attend this time. Good luck to all of my fellow Levant knights!

From the Fenland Citizen today. I thought this madness was outlawed by the European Union Court on Civil Rights, but apparently England has found a loophole. Apparently it's no longer cops and judges who have to register their Masonic memberships, it's city council members. So it continues…

Monday, July 13, 2015

Are you looking to improve your Masonic speeches? The Masonic Service Association has prepared a new Masonic Speaker Kit, pulling together 8 useful publications into a package to provide savings for users. Bring your Masonic remarks to a higher level and add confidence to your speaking opportunities. See details atwww.msana.comH/T George Braatz

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Worshipful Brother Brian Germann in Georgia tells me that Masons there are trying to get Masonic license plates for their state. So far, they have only gotten 350 orders. Come on, Georgia brethren! The state only requires 1000 orders to put the plates in production. There aren't 1000 brethren out of nearly 40,000 Georgia Freemasons willing to spend a couple of extra bucks to show their pride in the fraternity? Proceeds go to the Georgia Masonic Charities Foundation, as detailed on the order form available here: http://glofga.org/files/msptag.pdf With a thousand plates, that's an extra $10,000 to the Foundation every year, pretty painlessly.

Freemason tags are a great way to get our fraternity in front of the eyes of the community every day, and dozens of states are successfully doing this every year.

Thursday, July 02, 2015

A gentleman named Travis Simpkins sent me a note today that contained praise for Freemasons For Dummies, along with a sketch he made of me. He said he is going to petition a lodge at the end of the summer (apparently they're 'dark' in July and August).

I have received literally hundreds of messages like this over the years saying they read the Dummies book and can't wait to join, which is always a deeply humbling experience for me every time it happens. But this is the first time someone has made a portrait of me to go with it.

A mythic past. A visionary future. A legendary brotherhood.

Freemasonry is the largest, oldest and best-known gentleman's fraternity in the world. Historically, it is based on the Medieval stonemason guilds who built the great castles and cathedrals of Europe. Mythologically it is founded upon the building of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, as told in the Old Testament of the Bible. Modern Freemasons likewise use the tools, traditions and terminology of those earlier stonemasons as allegories for building Temples in the hearts of men.

It's said that we are a secret society. We do indeed have secrets—secrets that each individual man has to discover for and about himself.

At its core, Freemasonry is simply an attempt to make the world a better place, one man at a time. For each man, it can become as simple or as complicated as he himself desires.

It's not for everybody.

Maybe it's for you.

"Brother Chris Hodapp's [blog]...is thought provoking and is often the first place on the web where new ideas and matters of interest are posted."

In 2018 Chris was awarded the Caleb B. Smith Medal of Honor by the Grand Lodge F&AM of Indiana for his "distinguished service to Freemasonry in Indiana and worldwide."

Chris Hodapp received his higher education at Indiana University, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles Valley College, California State University at Northridge, and Indiana/Purdue University at Indianapolis.

He spent twenty-three years in advertising as a commercial filmmaker for Dean Crow Productions, shooting and editing close to 1,000 regional and national commercials, music videos and feature films. He has written scripts for corporate and non-profit clients, and his voice has appeared in countless television and radio commercials.

He was the editor and a contributor in 2004-5 to "Laudable Pursuit: A 21st Century Response to Dwight Smith"by the Knights of the North, a Masonic leadership think-tank focussing on modern lodge solutions. He has written for Indianapolis Monthly, Masonic Magazine, Templar History, the Scottish Rite Journal, the Knight Templar Magazine, the Indiana Freemason , the Phylaxis, and numerous other publications.

Hodapp and Alice Von Kannon developed episode outlines for the History Channel program, Brad Meltzer's Decoded in 2010, and contributed material on conspiracies and secret societies for TruTV and the American Heroes Channel. They have both appeared on National Public Radio, the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and the American Heroes Channel - most recently in 2017 on America: Facts vs Fiction.

Chris and Alice live in Indianapolis with their very French poodle Wiley who has them both answering to basic commands.

M.A.T.S.O.L.

If you are a Freemason who travels anywhere, you need to download the Amity app to your smartphone. Immediately.

Instantly identify lodges in all mainstream and Prince Hall U.S. jurisdictions, Canada, and more than 50 other countries. Determine a lodge's Masonic regularity immediately, and whether your own grand lodge is in amity with theirs, all on your phone.Apart from my own books, I don't advertise products here as a rule, but this service is absolutely free of charge, created by and for Freemasons, and with the cooperation of grand lodges all around the world.

I am a Freemason and a member of both the regular, recognized Grand Lodge of Indiana F&AM and the United Grand Lodge of England. However, unless otherwise attributed, the opinions expressed in this blog are my own, or of others expressing theirs by posting comments. I do not in any way represent the official positions of my lodges or Grand Lodges, any associated organization of which I may or may not be a member, or the fraternity of Freemasonry as a whole.

Be aware that no one person may speak on behalf of Freemasonry or present their opinion as being the "official" position of the fraternity, unless it is a grand master, and then, only within his own jurisdiction. While Freemasonry is a global fraternal organization, there is no single, authoritative, administrative Masonic body or figurehead anywhere in the world.

The unauthorized appearance of content from this site, in whole or in part, in links, aggregators, forums, comments or other websites does not express or imply an endorsement by the author.

If you are a Freemason and are lifting material from this website without attribution, shame on you.

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